The UFC’s return to Canada was officially announced late Thursday night, and the UFC today added four more contests to “UFC 113: Machida vs. Shogun II.”

In addition to the previously announced main event of light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida in a rematch with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the organization today confirmed a pair of main-card contests in Jeremy Stephens vs. Sam Stout and Alan Belcher vs. Patrick Cote as well as two preliminary card bouts.

UFC 113 takes place May 8 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, and the main card airs live on pay-per-view.

In addition to the main-card bouts, the UFC also announced a pair of preliminary matches with Marcus Davis vs. Jonathan Goulet and T.J. Grant vs. Johny Hendricks.

All four fights had been previously reported by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Belcher (15-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC), who makes his 10th octagon appearance, could enter the middleweight title picture with a win over Cote. The striker has won three of his past four bouts with wins over Ed Herman, Denis Kang and Wilson Gouveia. He’s earned two Fight of the Night bonuses and a Submission of the Night award in his past three fights that have totaled $205,000 in extra pay.

Cote (13-5 MMA, 4-5 UFC), who was the middleweight runner-up on a special “comeback” fourth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” posted five consecutive wins (three of which came in the UFC) after the show to earn a 2009 title shot with Anderson Silva. One of the victories came over Ricardo Almeida, who entered the bout with a seven-fight win streak over a six-year span.

Cote dropped the fight to Silva via KO after suffering a knee injury, and the UFC 113 bout is his first action since the loss.

Stephens (16-5 MMA, 4-4 UFC) looks to build off the momentum of an exciting win over Justin Buchholz at UFC Fight Night 19 this past September. The win was much-needed for Stephens, who had been in a 1-3 slump in the UFC.

Stephens had been expected to face Nik Lentz at January’s UFC Fight Night 20, but an injury forced him off the card. With 12 wins by knockout or TKO in his 16 career victories, “Lil’ Heathen” makes little attempt to hide his stand-and-bang strategy.

Meanwhile, Stout (15-5-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC) comes to the bout on the heels of one of the most impressive wins of his career. The Canadian native spoiled Joe Lauzon’s return from injury by dominating an exciting three-round affair at UFC 108 en route to winning a unanimous decision and the evening’s “Fight of the Night” bonus.

Stout now carries a two-fight win streak, and with just one submission win among his 15 career victories, his strategy is likely to mirror Stephens’ attack.

Davis (16-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) looks to snap a recent two-fight slide. “The Irish Hand Grenade” was knocked out for the first time in his career at this past November’s UFC 106 event courtesy of a series of powerful knee strikes by Ben Saunders. Prior to the loss, Davis had dropped a razor-thin split decision to current welterweight title challenger Dan Hardy.

Prior to the skid, “The Ultimate Fighter” vet had won 13 of his past 14 contests.

Meanwhile, Goulet (22-10 MMA, 4-4 UFC) returns to action for the first time since a devastating, 33-second loss to Mike Swick in December 2008. “The Road Warrior” has been expected to compete at this past July’s UFC 100 event, but an injury suffered in training forced him to withdraw from the event.

Prior to the loss to Swick, Goulet had been riding a three-fight win streak that included a pair of victories in the UFC over Kuniyoshi Hironaka and Paul Georgieff.

After losing a decision to Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 100, Grant (15-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) got back on the winning track in his most recent octagon performance, winning “Knockout of the Night” honors for his TKO of Kevin Burns at UFC 107. It was the first such award for the jiu-jitsu specialist, who has ended all but two of his professional fights by submission.

Hendricks (7-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC), a flagship member of the wrestling-based fighter stable Team Takedown, will put his undefeated streak on the line against Grant.

After whetting his appetite in the now-defunct WEC welterweight class, Hendricks moved to the UFC and immediately made his presence known by railroading “The Ultimate Fighter 8″ winner Amir Sadollah at UFC 101 this past August. Most recently, Hendricks won a hard-fought decision over tough newcomer Ricardo Funch at UFC 107, setting the stage for an upgrade in experienced opponents.

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